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Using stealth to loot chests
A work in progress by Bael, a 70 Rogue. The disclaimer The following is a list of chests I have successfully managed to solo since reaching 70, and the method by which I was able to do it. Reproducing or copying this material in any kind of official Blizzard forum is a thoroughly bad idea: whether or not this is in line with a balanced game is for developers to decide, but there's no need to attract their attention... I am posting this as a resource for other rogues to draw on, since there is a disappointing lack of information available about stealthable chests and instances. It will be a work in progress: as I manage to achieve different instances I will list my techniques and the time it took to complete them. Please note that this is probably not the most effective way to earn gold: I'm sure that farming primals on Elemental Plateau or doing quests in Netherstorm is a faster and more efficient way of making money. However, with some practice, farming these chests can be easy, rewarding (especially with the occasional blue) and, most of all, a whole world of fun. Enjoy :) Advice * Level to 70. It will take you all of 15-20 days of playing the game if you're slow. If you can't be bothered leveling, you won't be able to do anything here. * You will die. Lots. You will die when you think you'll be fine, you will constantly overestimate your health and underestimate how hard those 59 elites hit you for, you will lose patience and attack before cooldowns and you will be utterly miserable the first few times you try. Stick with it. Every mob you kill before you die is a mob you don't have to kill later, and the 2 minute walk back is enough for a lot of your cooldowns to reset: so, use them. There is nothing worse than dying and realising you could have used Adrenaline Rush. * If at any point you simply do not want to keep going: stop. The instance isn't going anywhere, and it's not like you spent a good deal of time clearing it. Go and farm, or run an instance, or PvP, or whatever takes your mind off it. Try the chest another day. * Dirty Tricks is amazingly useful in these instances. I have been able to Sap 'detector' mobs (the ones with the cats eyes) at max range WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THEM. Keep this in mind. * Your talent build is your own, but to maximize your speed and efficiency in acquiring these chests, I recommend something along the lines of 5/33/23, featuring Malice, Adrenaline Rush and Preparation, as well as Elusiveness and Endurance to reduce the cooldowns on all of your major abilities. Blade Flurry is another critical talent, and will be relied on heavily in this guide. This build was initially developed to give the rogue some decent burst potential and cooldown recycling for PvP, as well as consistent DPS provided by Dual Wield Spec and Precision to give some PvE viability: but it is simultaneously the best build for farming chests quickly, thanks to MoD, Dirty Tricks and Camo. * Stat wise, Stamina is equally as important as Attack Power. The faster you kill things, the less stamina you'll need, but don't gimp your health. At the time of doing the Ramparts chest I had 8,964 hp unbuffed, 1225 AP and 25.8% crit rating. Remember, you can get temporary AP buffs through trinkets, but you can't get temporary health buffs. * Weapon wise, 70 DPS should be your minimum goal, achievable through 70 instances. I haven't tried daggers, nor would I: the name of the game is sustained burst damage, and you can't spend any time messing around with stun-locks when you HAVE to down two mobs within 15 seconds. On the other hand, dagger rogues may be able to take out mobs through sheer burst. Its up to you, but the guide is built for a combat fist/sword/mace rogue. * Potions help, but shouldn't be necessary. If you need to pot or healthstone you're trying to take too much on at once. 2k health doesn't help a lot against the 1k mortal strikes. * When you heal after killing a mob, start eating and stealth straight away. It can save a lot of headache if you misread a pat or some unknown element comes into play. * Flash powder. Get lots. You should never walk into an instance with the intention of farming a chest without at LEAST a stack of flash powder. * Lockpicking. Level it, it's really not hard. The chests can sometimes be locked, and having 350 Lockpicking will let you into Shattered Halls and the Arcatraz as soon as you hit 70. Plus, party members will love you. * Ranged Blind is absolutely amazing and gives you a total of 55 seconds of crowd control on a single mob. Here we go. Hellfire Citadel Hellfire Ramparts: Normal Difficulty Average loot per chest: 5g 75s cash, one green item, scrolls and potions. Rarer drops include Nightseye, Breastplate of Blade Turning and an alchemy recipe. Two chests appear in this brief instance, and after some practice the first one can be reached, cleared and looted in under 10 minutes. Theoretically this chest could be done in around five minutes with no deaths, perfect execution of preparation and one cooldown cycle of vanish. **My name is Wifflenut on realm Maiev, I can stealth run the the first chest while pickpocketing every mob and get out in under 7 minutes, if you look at my armory, my build does not include any points into sub tree (so no dirty tricks or improved stealth), and I'm a 16/45/0 Fist/Sword build. Here is my way of doing Chest One. 1. The first patrol does not need to be sapped and/or killed. Watch his pat once so you can see where he actually stops and turns around, when he's patrolling towards the entrance to instance you need to distract when he reaches his turnaround point 2. Hug the left wall, and sap the left guard, keep hugging the wall and walk through the left guard and continue across the bridge. 3. Watch for the dog pat, you can effectively have both the bridge pat and the dog pat coming at you and not pull aggro, just don't move, but that shouldn't be an issue. 4. Follow the left wall going behind all the catapults, and braziers. 5. Keep following the left wall, there will be another dog pat, avoid this pat and move to the right wall, hug the right wall all the way til you get to the chest. 6. Sap the mob to the front left by the dog 7. Walk around the carriage and cheap shot the caster, with those 2 CP's pop SnD, then pop Evasion, Blade Flurry, and Adrenaline Rush. This should be enough to kill everything attacking you. If done fast enough, bandage up and kill the final mob after sap expires. If you sap already expired, blind the mob or vanish and bandage, then finish it off. 8. Loot the chest, stealth out, rinse and repeat. I've done roughly 25 of these runs, have gotten 3 BoE blues, 5 Blue gems, and about 20-22 greens. When perfected, this style of the run can be done incredibly quickly. Not counting AH'able items, this works out to be about 50g in that half hour. Counting selling the gems and blues, I have made upwards of about 150g for that half hour of work depending on drops. Chest one Difficulty = Relatively Easy # Zone into the instance and wait at the front of the bridge whilst stealthed for the detector's patrol. He walks between the two mobs at either end of the bridge: aggroing him at any stage will aggro a minimum of two mobs, so killing him is out of the question. Thankfully, it is unnecessary. # Throw a distract on the opposite side of the bridge and Sap him at max range (Dirty Tricks is a must). # Stealth past and keep an eye on the next patrol, two watchdogs and a guard. They cannot be aggroed without death. # When they head back away from the bridge, follow them at a distance of about 20 yards. Move left into the debris between the two siege engines and climb over the further ballista, jumping off next to the brazier. You should be about 20 yards to the left of the pat: hug the wall and you will be well out of range. # Ignore the detectors on your right and keep going forward, veering right to the opposite wall after the cluster of 5 caster mobs. # The next pat has a long patrol range, so wait until they head back before sticking to the right wall. There is a lone detector that will sometimes repair the catapult near here: you can wait for him to pat, or distract and sap him to get past. Jump over the ballistae and continue to hug the wall until you get to the corner: the first chest should now be to your left. # This chest is guarded by 5 mobs: 2 beasts (Detector), 1 caster (Scorch, Rain of Fire), 1 Arms-Warrior type mob (Mortal Strike, Knockback) and 1 generic warrior mob (Disarm, runs in fear). # Make sure you have instant/wound poison MH and crippling OH. The following method is "safe" with the aforementioned 5/33/23 build, though more time consuming than risking soloing two elites without cooldowns. # Sap the caster mob from behind and Cheap Shot the hound to its left: if you are detected, it doesn't matter so much. Take a few steps back and pop Evasion, Blade Flurry and Bladefists Breadth/AP trinket. The hounds have approximately 5k health and should go down before blade flurry wears off. It is imperative that they are both dead before you Vanish. # Heal up and wait for Blade Flurry (and Vanish if you don't have Prep). Sap the Mortal Strike mob and Garotte the caster while taking a few steps back. Pop Blade Flurry and Adrenaline Rush and kill the caster. # Use Preparation and Vanish. Heal up and sap the Mortal Strike warrior again. # Kill the other warrior, ensuring you keep Crippling up when he gets low: he can run anywhere and aggro half the instance if you're unlucky. Try and save your cooldowns and bandage after he's dead. # Now take on the Mortal Strike warrior. Treat him like a standard level 70 mob: his Mortal Strike hits for 1.4k on 2.9k armour, and his knockback hits for 600 and sends you flying. He has high armour and hits like a truck. Keep your back to the wall and your dots ticking/expose armour up and he should go down quickly enough. Blow all your cooldowns since it'll be a while before we need them again. # Success! When he dies, loot the corpses, and rejoice in your first soloed chest. Chest two Difficulty = Medium # Stealth and walk through the instance, keeping to the middle to avoid the detectors on either side and sticking to the walls when you can. Avoid the boss or pickpocket him. # Walk up the stairs and past the next group of 4 casters. # Through the door you come into the landing which is absolutely crawling with mobs; you can see the last boss on his dragon up ahead. Don't get disheartened: it can be done. The chest is to the left, one culvert in the wall along. # There is a patrol of one guard and two dogs that circles this room. By my calculation he has a maximum of 45 seconds for a full rotation: a well timed distract can make that 55 seconds. Plenty of time for a rogue! # Hold back while the patrol passes and turn to your left immediately: you can jump up on the small wall there, stand in the corner and be invisible to the detectors. This is your staging area. Poison up, check your cooldowns, and get ready. # As soon as the patrol walks past you, throw a distract in front of them to keep the rooted a moment. As you do so walk forward and turn left so you're facing the chest. The mobs guarding this are exactly the same as the first, and thus the kill order is the same. # Sap the Mortal Strike mob (you can reach him before being detected) and blow your cooldowns to take down the dogs, then Vanish. Do not even try to kill more, the patrol moves too quickly and if you get caught, you die. # You can run back to your staging area or, alternatively, jump onto the wall behind the mobs, steering clear of the brazier (it will break stealth). You can actually fight mobs here without being seen by the patrol: but if you get knockbacked/sap breaks/the runner manages to take a few feet, you'll be seen. Do so at your own risk. # Wait for cooldowns, wait for the patrol, sap Mortal Strike and kill the caster. If you're quick, you can kill the other warrior mob as well. Vanish. # Wait for cooldowns, wait for pat and kill the Mortal Strike warrior. Again, do not slack off on the cooldowns. With the other mobs dead you can take your time with him if you need to, but it is always better to kill quickly in this area. # Congratulations! You have reached the second chest. You can loot it without being seen by the pat, then make your merry way out of the instance pickpocketing as you go. Notes * As you get more comfortable you can sprint past some of the mobs to get there quicker: alternatively, you can pickpocket pretty much everything in the instance and earn a couple gold from that alone. * From start to finish on your first run it shouldn't take you much more than half an hour, including three or four deaths. * The pickpocket timers seem to be very short in this instance: if you pickpocket everything as you go in, chances are you'll be able to do it again when you zone out. * Remember you get 4 instance resets an hour: if it takes you 15 minutes or more to farm the first chest, it may be more lucrative to reset the instance after every first chest run until you get more proficient at it. * This will be impossible in Heroic mode, I believe, since it involves killing 2 mobs at a time. * When in doubt: yes, that mob can see you, and no, Vanish won't work. Sprint for the exit or die. Coilfang Reservoir The Underbog: Normal Difficulty The Underbog is a fantastic place for any rogue to farm, be they a miner, herbalist, alchemist (needing Sporeggar rep for potion recipes), chest-farmer, or simply after an easily accessible source of guild credit in Sanguine Hibiscus. Most of the spawn points of Sanguine are easily accessible with the aid of a distract, since they do not link mobs like a chest or resource node: most of the spawn points of ores are accessible, INCLUDING the one under the water; and at least one of the chests can be farmed quite easily. Notice that the second chest is not a guaranteed spawn, which can be quite frustrating, but there are still plenty of nodes and Sanguine Hibiscus further along in the instance to make it profitable: if, however, all you want are the chests, Ramparts is the place for you. Here's how to stealth farm the Underbog. Chest one I have only had one death-free attempt at taking this chest, and that involved a great deal of cooldown abuse in a cookie-cutter 20/41/0 fist build and a lucky resist against Itchy Spores. # Zone into the Underbog and make your way dead ahead past the wandering bats. Distract works wonders; if you get seen, don't waste vanish but run out and in again. # Hugging the left of the wall, walk straight up the small hill between the two pillars to come to the first spawn point. # Three mobs guard this chest; typically, one Underbog Lurker, one Underbog Shambler, and one Spore Bat. # Success requires that you kill at least one of the mobs on your first attempt; if this can be achieved (and if you don't mind waiting for cooldowns) you're set. # I typically target the Underbat first, as they seem to have the lowest amount of health; the Shambler is also a good target to interrupt his spells. You have 15 seconds to deal a great amount of damage. Depending on how much damage you can inflict with blade flurry, and the state of your health, you may decide to kill two of them from the beginning: however, this is not recommended, as you will sustain a great deal of damage (the mobs hit for 700-800) and you will die quickly. # If you get into serious trouble, you can back out into the water; just far enough that the melee mobs evade bug, but not so far that you walk into the fish (who WILL kill you) # After one/two mobs are down, wait for cooldowns/blow Prep and repeat after healing # Grats! The first chest is yours. Chest two # After looting the first chest follow the shoreline to the north, picking up any Sanguine/nodes along the way (you can walk around the ramp to get another node/sanguine.) # Follow the typical instance path, past the boss, past the big guys and bat patrols, up to the narrow bridge with the two naga on it. # Wait for the naga patrol to reach the bottom and throw a distract, hugging the opposite side to walk up. In front of the detector sentries, head immediately left after you cross the bridge. # Now for the tricky part: you will notice on the wall to the left of the sentries a shallow crack that seems impossible to jump through. Indeed, it almost is: almost being the operative word. The trick is to position your jump approximately halfway up the diagonally slant of the crack, so that your next jump can clear the rise entirely. It depends more on luck than anything: I once cleared this on my second jump, only to spend 10 minutes the next time around trying to remember how. Stay in stealth the entire time, because if you make it over you call fall into the corridor without thinking. # The chest is easy to loot without killing any guards. Sneak past and stand as close to the chest as you can while keeping it between you and the patrol. Wait for the patrol to path reasonably close to the foot of the ramp, and throw a distract. You can open, loot, and restealth in the 15 or so seconds it takes for distract to wear off and the mobs to path back. If distract is resisted by one mob, just wait for them to path around. Rinse and repeat! Chest three (By Katharn lvl 70 Rogue, Archimonde) Through my own adventures with this guide, I've found that it is possible to stealth through the entire instance and pick up a number of extra Sanguine Hibiscus in my Sporeggar reputation farming. I've also seen a number of Rich Adamantite Deposits and even Khorium Veins. While on these runs I found a 3rd chest than can spawn, it appears in my experience that if chest 2 does not spawn then chest 3 will. It is located just before the third boss, Swamplord Musel'ek and Claw. So here we go! # Follow the path as listed before up to the 2nd chest. # Continue following the typical instance path past the 2nd boss, Ghaz'an, jump off the platform and go through into the next passage as you normally would. # This next hallway has a number of patrols and can also have a number of herb and ore nodes. After you pass the first two groups of Fen Rays (one patrol, one stationary) stay to the left of the path. Stay on this edge until you can't follow it any more. # Cross back over the path, watching for the patrols. Once across you'll see a group of two Fen Rays with a chest beside them. (Note* I've only seen it locked, but I imagine like all chests it can be an already open one.) # Watch your timing and you can pull the two Fen Rays without any other mob coming. I've not yet killed both at the same time with Blade Flurry, but I believe it is possible. If you don't kill them both, just pop your Vanish, and wait for cooldowns to finish before you take the 2nd one. (This is how I've done it, one at a time and have never missed this chest when it was there.) # Congrats on your chest! Just watch out for the Wasp patrol. Start opening when they're out of range and you'll get the loot before they get back. Notes Average loot per chest: 5g 91s, one green item, one green gem, various pots. No rare items from an Underbog chest to date. Also note that it will take you a farking long time to thoroughly farm this instance, especially if you get detected continuously. On a farming session for the guild alchemist I was only able to obtain about 30 sanguine hibiscus, a stack of Adamantite, 4 Khorium ore and 2 chests (I had a mutilate build and didn't' want to risk dying badly on the first chest) before giving up: I had died 6 times. Latency is awful in this instance, since it can be hard to predict where the underbats are pathing or how close they are relative to you two seconds ago. Or something like that. From Katharn: I have received a few rare items from chests within Underbog. Two Noble Topaz and one rare helm. Other than that its the usual green item and gem. From Atnip (Detheroc Server): I intended to solo the last boss for a Sporeggar rep. quest: I then acquired a resto Druid. Together we stealthed all the way. The second chest dropped The Dreamer's Shoulders. A good drop, as the first one dropped a Star of Elune. Needless to say, I now have a very nice new tabard. Tempest Keep: The Mechanar '''As of Patch 2.2 the chests in Tempest Keep: The Mechanar have been moved so that they are nearly impossible to solo. '' ' Prerequisites # Master of Deception . I have not tried farming these chests without it, and I have had a few mobs turn their attention to me quite a few times even with it fully maxed. It's my understanding that without this talent, they will spot you quite easily. # Strip all armor. This will save you all the money you're about to make, because farming these almost guarantees a kill every time. Repair bills add up. # Low level weapon for main hand. You need this for your Sap, and again...keep it low level so the repair bill is cheap. # Ranged weapon and Flash Powder. You should have both, so this should go without saying. # Max Lockpicking skill. Some chests are locked, and are orange at 350 skill, so you will fail a lot. Dark Leather Gloves supposedly helps. # Autoloot. If worst comes to worst and mobs reset back to their spots just as you pop the chest, you don't have to worry about manually clicking each item. It saves A LOT of time and frustration. There are three spawn points for each chest, and I will list them in counterclockwise order. Chest one: right staircase Make your way into the instance and head towards the right. Through the doorway, an Tempest-Forge Patroller will be patrolling. Wait for it to head back in and follow behind it, passing the first three Blood Elves, then the two guarding the door. Walk over to the far side of that small area and wait for the Guardian to patrol back down to the starting area. Straight ahead from where you came in will be another two Blood Elves guarding the passage. Go past them and into the large room. There are many pats here, so be very careful. Look for the staircase leading down to the lower level of the room. This is the staircase where the mini-boss, Gatewatcher Iron-Hand will be patrolling. At the top of the stairs there will Blood Elves: one to the left corner, and one to the right up against the wall. Once Iron-Hand starts patrolling down, sap the one on your left (the one not nearest to the wall). Now look over the ledge and you should see the chest among a few Blood Elf and Mo'arg mobs on the lower level. Line yourself up with the chest and pull a mob. What will happen here is they will run around the boxes, around the pillar, and run up the staircase ledge to you. Once you see them come around the pillar, wait a second and then run off, and Vanish in midair. Try to land right in front of the chest so you can begin to open it immediately after you land. Depending on your timing, you can make it out alive with this chest. Immediately after you open it...walk backwards and up against the wall. If timed properly, this is out of the mob's aggro range and if you managed to remain out of combat, you can restealth and leave the instance. This is probably the easiest pull to reset. Chest two: far corner # Proceed the same as Chest One: Head to the right. But this time, head down the stairs, taking careful note of Iron-Hand. In the far corner to the right of the clear boxes, you should see the chest. Among the mobs, you will see a non-elite running back and forth on a patrol path. Take note of him, and be very careful that you don't run into him, vice/versa. It helps to Distract him. Also, select him, as he is the one you will need to pull. # Go to the very far corner of that area, behind the boxes, and behind the pillar. You should now be in the most northeastern part of the room. It is safe to unstealth here. Facing the EAST wall (just behind the hump that stretches a few yards), try to jump on the ledge. It's very tricky to get at first, but with time you'll get it. You'll most likely have to jump, get 'snagged' on an invisible platform, then jump up again. # Once up, walk along the ledge that heads westward then follow it back south, which should bring you facing the clear boxes (and behind them, the mobs). Stop once you get to the corner and face the mobs. It is safe to remain unstealthed here as long as you do not fall off the ledge. # Keep an eye on the running demon. He will pat away from you, and back. Once he is in range with your ranged weapons, distract him. Getting in range may require you to inch out to the corner as far as you can without falling off. It helps to be stealthed here, but is not necessary. # Pull the running demon once Distracted. What happens with this pull is the group will track your steps up around that hump in the wall, onto the ledge, and around the corner. Pan your camera so you can see behind you and step back a few feet. Sometimes, they will reset, depending on your position. When you see the demons on the ledge appear from behind the pillar, Sprint towards the chest, which from your current viewpoint is now around the back of the boxes. Take note not to go to the right too much, as you risk pulling the other group. Vanish once you get around the corner and open it. # It's possible to reset this one, although it's a bit harder than the first chest. Once you loot it, depending on your timing, our Sprint should still be active. Trace your path back around the pillar. Chest three: left staircase # This one is a mirror image of the first chest, so proceed the same way, except go to the left. This time, the pat you need to watch is another of those Tempest-Forge Patroller. This time, Sap the Blood Elf to your right, leaving the one on the left (up against the wall) alone. Head over to the ledge and spot the chest. # Once the Tempest-Forge Patroller is at the bottom of the stairs, pull a mob. Then immediately step back a few feet to 'line-of-sight' pull, because the non-elites will stay where they are and throw thier AoE grenades at you. Also make sure you don't walk into the other Blood Elf near the wall. # Just like chest one, make sure you're lined up and wait for the mobs to come around the pillar. I usually wait until the non-elites start throwing their AoEs again until I jump down and Vanish in mid air. Open the chest. Last words If you're able to restealth, try Pick Pocketing all the mobs on your way out. This multiplies your profits very well, and can net you some lockboxes and healing potions. From this, I have made very very nice profits with the extra pots. I've noticed that Heroic Mechanar chests drop the same amount of money, and still drops a green the few times I did it. I'm not sure if there are increased chances for blues to drop. As stated, this takes a lot of practice and patience. You will fail many times with the locked chests, and dying is almost guaranteed. Just stick with it. And make sure you watch a video of this too, to see the pulls in action. Coming soon The Blood Furnace (A couple spawn points which could be interesting) Shattered Halls (Not really optimistic about that one) Slave Pens (One that I know of may be doable) Mana Tombs (Convinced I can get that chest with the three elites spawned!) EDIT: It is possible to get all chests apart form the one that spawns neer the mana worms contact SilverlightEU for info. EDIT: It is also possible to get the chest near the mana worms spawn in the back of the room. Once your close to killing one (with blade furry active) pop CoS this will save you from 2 of the explosions. To finish off the rest sometimes I'll use a pot, sometimes I don't need to (a lot of luck on this one) and if you stand at max range to open the chest you won't aggro the other mobs. - Florinas/Arygos And more... Category:Rogues